The International House of Mojo

And today we have a lovely picture of the cover of StarWars insider magazine, sent to me by my friend Jimk. On this cover we see an image of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, as he will appear in Episode2. Spooky.

Yet another species announced for StarWars Galaxies. Now it is the Twi'lek (the race with the tentacles frequently seen in Jabbas palace):

A common species throughout the galaxy, Twi'leks are similar to humans in many respects, but can be identified by the twin head tentacles that grow from their skulls. Native to the planet Ryloth, Twi'leks also have a wide variety of skin coloration, ranging from pale white to dark green. In general, Twi'leks are non-violent, but they are also diverse: members of the species have become Jedi Knights, pilots, crime lords, and politicians.

to read more about this and other species to be featured in this game, head on over to The Station

Source: BigWhoop

BBC news today featured an article about JEDI being a religion. It was sparked off by a site called The Jedi Creed which seems to take Jedi as being a way of life.

You may be a fan of the Star Wars films, but are you a follower? Moves are afoot to have the fictitious Jedi philosophy the movies espouse recognised as a proper religion.

If 8,000 New Zealanders have heeded an e-mail asking them to declare Jedi as their faith on this week's census forms, then Star Wars will have spawned an officially recognised religion.

Kiwis who went along with the jape may have to explain themselves to the authorities since it is an offence to enter false information in the census.

its seems scarily fanatical, but if you want to read more, head on over to BBC.co.uk

Further to our previous news post regarding a possible Jedi Knight 2, we've got some more rumours via German site StarWarsNews.de, who in turn got their info from German mag GameStar. There's a pretty poor English translation via Babelfish here.

Due to the terrible translation, you'd be better reading it yourself, but the general gist of the post is that "an insider" told Gamestar that Raven Software (known for their last FPS success, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force) are to work with LucasArts to produce JK2, possibly using the Doom 3 or Quake III 3D game engines.

LucasArts apparently had no comment. Surprisingly enough.

Source: Shacknews

LucasArts/ LucasLearning have launched a funky new flash site for Super Bombad Racing (due out very soon). The site details a lot more of the power ups and playing style, has new screenshots and a trailer to stream. Check it out at SuperBombad.com

Pc.ign.com has put out an interview with LucasArts' Vice President of Development Randy Breen and Public Relations Director Tom Sarris about the new Star Wars RTS 'Battleground'. They had some interesting things to say including some morsels about the Adventure Genre, check it out:

IGNPC: I'm sure. It's a shame that the adventure market isn't as strong in the US as it once was.

Randy Breen: Well Monkey Island's doing pretty well, and it's doing exceptionally well in Europe. I think you're likely to see some more of those products in the future.

Italian gaming site Multiplayer.it has posted a press release (original Italian release here) announcing an alliance bvetween LucasArts and Ensemble Studios (the creators of Age of Empires and Age of Kings - mmmm) to produce a realtime strategy game based in the Star Wars universe. The game, titled Star Wars: Battlegrounds, continues LEC's trend of outsourcing much of the work on Star Wars titles to proven developers like Factor 5 (Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo) and Luxoflux (Demolition). If this is indeed the game that was hinted at being officially announced later today we should be seeing some screenshots and more details shortly.

Update (again): Better late than never (sorry), here's a portion from the official press release from LucasArts.com:

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- February 27, 2001 -- LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC today announced a strategic alliance with Ensemble Studios to develop a new and compelling Real Time Strategy (RTS) franchise for the digital interactive gaming market. The initial release from this cooperative venture, Star Wars Battleground, will be built upon PC-based technology created by Ensemble and used in the highly acclaimed Age of Empires series. Combining the design talents of LucasArts and Ensemble -- including noted designer Bruce Shelley -- Star Wars Battleground will build upon Ensemble's proprietary engine technology to usher in a new phase in the evolution of the RTS game. Star Wars Battleground is expected to release fall 2001.

Future ventures with LucasArts are envisaged to encompass new technologies developed by Ensemble, weaving increasingly innovative engineering into the core premise of interactive strategic warfare within the Star Wars universe.

Source: Shacknews

If you live in Britain SKY Movies are showing all 4 STAR WARS Films from Staurday 17th March. They are currently showing an advert/trailer about the 4 films.
Just thought I'd let you know!!!

Just got an email from Lucas Arts, they said it well enough and goddamnit its 3:30 in the morning whilst installing Win 98, so here's what they said

Calling all defenders of Naboo! LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC is pleased to announce that the demo for STAR WARS: BATTLE FOR NABOO PC will be available for download on Friday, February 23, 2001. Check the LucasArts web site (http://www.lucasarts.com) after 7:00 p.m.(PST) on Friday for download information. The full version of STAR WARS: BATTLE FOR NABOO PC is expected to be on store shelves in the U.S. and Canada on March 13, 2001.

Oh in an unrelated note DOOM3 R0X0RS MY WORLD!!%&#^@*$

A new race has been announced for the online Starwars RPG: StarWars Galaxies.
This race - the Rodian.

A species of humanoids recognized by their bumpy skin, multifaceted eyes and flexible snouts, Rodians also have pointed ears, short antennae, and long fingers that end in suction cups. On their homeworld, Rodians live in clans that often wage war against one another. Due to their violent culture, Rodians often make excellent bounty hunters and mercenaries.

This race is one of the many which you will be able to play as in the game.

Yeah, maybe according to the French gaming site gamedata.com (in English via Babelfish). They've posted a list of games to be released in the near future from Activision's overseas division. Listed are Soldier of Furtune 2, a Star Trek game, and Jedi Knight 2. One of the mysterious nine new titles to be announced at E3 (see previous news post)?

Source: Shugashack

Daily Radar has posted an in depth preview of LEC's Starfighter for the Playstation2. Hopes are high for this game so you may want to head over to Daily Radar to see if the expextations have been met after extensive play-testing. here's a quote:

When developers withhold tangible samples of eagerly anticipated games, we're prone to become a bit suspicious -- after all, we all know all too well what happens when we get our hopes up too high. And with Starfighter, LucasArts' premiere title for the PS2, hopes are very high indeed. Sony's badass black box is in dire need of a spacebound shooter (there are, currently, none -- sci-fi or otherwise), and we could all use a great Star Wars game.

IGN Filmforce has previews of 3 Lego sets from that movie I'm sure you're all in insane anticipation of, Episode 2. The 3 shown include the notorious Tie Fighter and Technix (or whatever) C-3PO's and Storm Troopers. Only one question remains: Where the heck is a Jar Jar Binks Set?

mercatfat I took the liberty and changed the title from "Legos" to "LEGO" El Pollo Diablo.

El pollo Diablo, i took the liberty of changing "merfatcat" to "mercatfat". Spaff

Starwars.com have released 9 pictures of characters for Star Wars Episode II. I have added an excert from the news article.

"The 98th annual American International Toy Fair arrives in New York City from February 11 - 15, and some distinctive Star Wars faces will be there -- or rather, amazing replicas of them. At this key event for manufacturers and retailers in the toy industry, Hasbro and Lucas Licensing will unveil several highly detailed busts made of Episode II characters."

If you want to read the whole article click the 'SOURCE' link also at the bottom of this page.

Source: Starwars.com

Just got this in from Blondebeard:

"There's Battle For Naboo preview at IGNPC. Click here to read it."

Here's an excerpt from the review:

"As Gavin Sykes, you'll have to take the helm of vehicles like the great yellow N-1 Starfighter, a Trade Federation gunboat, and those Federation STAP vehicles that looked like flying gun turrets to succeed in your mission. LucasArts promises adventures on the land, sea and in the air and that there will be vehicles in the game that were not featured prominently in the movie."

Source: Blondebeard

There is Q&A with Brett Tosti of LucasArts about the up-coming title; Battle for Naboo. The quastions and answers deal with porting the N64 title to the PC and are accompanied by some new PC screenshots of the game.

The approach of the day of lovers means we will be seeing more of this kind of thing: Starwars kids have created a.... well it's a Starwars valentines collage, depicing love in the SW universe. I'ts a bit odd, and you can mail it to a 'friend' for Valentines day.

More news on the Starwars Kids front include some new games, a sith quiz and a missing word game
Fun Fun Fun!

In this article on IGN states that LucasArts will be porting the n64 game "Battle for Naboo" to the PC.
This I assume is the first of their game anouncements, but is also the first game anounced for the PC since the scrapping of OBI WAN. Perhaps fans of the Starwars Universe can be a little bit happier now.

This port will be available pretty soon and will feature better resolution, graphics and menu system. w00t!

While I await the newly hired Starwars correspondants to be fuly trained, I must cover these news posts. I missed a lot of SW news out over the last few weeks, apologies to those who care.

Bombad Racing, the fantastic kiddy kart style racer has been canned for production on the DC but it still seems to be going strong. The LEC Product Spotlight page for bombad has some new concept art and an interview with Francis Hsu, the Concept artist.

Q: How did you come up with the idea to draw big-headed Star Wars characters?
A: Because big heads are cute. No, really, I got my inspiration from Mario Kart - it's the only kart racing game I like

We knew it all along didn't we boys and girls?

If you're feeling the bores this weekend (and hey, who isn't?), here's a couple fun things.

Allergic to Life currently has the famous Star Wars Gangsta rap on it. I highly suggest you check it out if you haven't already, yo.

Dreamcast VMU development groupVM2 has created a very fun port of X-Wing for the VMU. It's availible only on Booyaka, and you'll need a free account there to access get the file. There are several other Star Wars games, but X-Wing is certainly the best. It's one of the about 1000 reasons that make the Dreamcast much better than a certain other 128 bit console.

Finally, PC Format mentioned us in a sidebar (scan). Also mentioned were The Scumm Bar and The World of Monkey Island.

Comment: I'm sorry i didnt post this sooner, i had the scan a week or so ago, whoops! thanks bone_man, and countless others who sent it to me! - Spaff